Danny Pintauro: When the "Who's the Boss" star is outed, Hollywood turns (more) homophobic. With HIV awareness and n*de photos (of adults)
"And Just Like That": Carrie's return has elitism, bisexuals, dongs, musems, marital spats, s'mores, and shoes. Lots of shoes.
I never watched Sex and the City when it first aired on HBO (1998-2004), although I knew about Mr. Big (Chris Noth), for obvious reasons. Who wants to watch four super-entitled New York-centric ladies having lunch? The only episode I watched featured Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) investigating bisexuals for her "Sex and the City" newspaper column.
So much for bi representation.
Researching this review, I discovered that Carrie has a stereotypic gay best friend with the incredible name Stanford Blatch (why, was Bruce Van Swishington taken?).
Having never watched the original, I've never been interested in the 2021-25 sequel, And Just Like That (presumably the title means that 20 years have passed "just like that"). But I've seen n*de guys parading around on occasion, and the plot synopses mention several LGBTQ characters. We'll see if the portrayals are cringy.
I'll identify the five main ladies by their careers. From left to right, Filmmaker Lisa, Art Dealer Charlotte, Columnist Carrie, Realtor Seema, Lawyer Miranda.
Episode 3.5, "Under the Table," has three main plot threads.
The Charlotte/Lisa Plot:
Scene 1: The Guggenheim. I love that museum. Wait -- they didn't visit, they're just walking past. Art Dealer Charlotte's boyfriend Harry (Evan Handler) reveals that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, but they found it early, so he has a 98% chance of full recovery.
In other news, they're going glamping (glamor camping) with the kids at Governors Island this weekend.
Scene 2: Nuclear family breakfast in a huge, super-elegant kitchen. Filmmaker Lisa won't be back from filming her documentary until late Friday, so she tells her husband, Herbert Wexley (wow, what unrealistic entitled name), to take their children to Governors Island for glamping with Charlotte and her boyfriend.
Husband is played by Chris Jackson
"You can do the 'regular guy' shoot on Monday, " Filmmaker Lisa commands. "This weekend we're going glamping with the Goldblatts."
Scene 3: Art Dealer Charlotte is trying to cook, but she's too distracted. Her friend Anthony (Mario Cantone, left) asks if she's ok.
Her children, a girl and a nonbinary person, ask if they can skip glamping. "No, you're going" It's important because her boyfriend has prostate cancer, but he doesn't want them knowing that.
Scene 4: Governors Island (no apostrophe), just south of Manhattan, with views of the skyline. The nonbinary child notes that there's a spa and go-karts.
Art Dealer Charlotte's boyfriend complains about the mosquitos.
Filmmaker Lisa bursts in, and her husband criticizes her for being late. "Well, four hours ago, I was in Atlanta." Then they bicker because one of them told the other to buy chocolate to make s'mores. This couple is on the outs.
Scene 5: A tent big enough for three beds and a living room set. The boyfriend and the kids are lounging around, playing on their cell phones, when Art Dealer Charlotte bursts in and complains that they should be doing outdoor activities. They refuse. My parents used to say that on family vacations. "You shouldn't be lounging around the cabin reading comic books. Go enjoy the outdoors."
How does one "enjoy" the outdoors? It's a place you go through on the way to enjoying things.
Meanwhile, Filmmaker Lisa and her husband bicker. She takes a photo of him and their kids. When he looks at it, he accidentally scrolls to the last one she took: a selfie with her editor Marion (Mehcad Brooks).
"Are you having an affair with Michael B. Handsome? Talk about getting your chocolate in Atlanta!"
"No, it's just a work crush."
He continues to growl, so Lisa stomps off, and runs into Charlotte at the pier. They complain about their partners, and decide to ditch them and take a spa day.
Cut to the spa. Close up of ladies in bikinis. They're really pushing the heterosexual male gaze.
Carrie/Miranda and Seema after the break
Alexander Polinsky: Adam on "Charles in Charge" grows up, models props, goes Furthur. With Andrew Keegan, Julian Sands, and some d*cks
There were boys around, too, but Jonathan Ward and Michael Pearlman from the 1984-85 version can't be found. That leaves Alexander Polinsky, who appeared as Adam Powell in 104 episodes in the second version (1986-90).
The show was focused on Charles, his buddy Buddy (Willie Aames), and the two teenage girls, so Adam didn't get a lot of centrics: he is harassed by a bully, gets a crush on a girl, takes a babysitting job. I recall one episode where Adam has to explain that he doesn't like playing football. He starts off with a list of the sports he does like, lest Charles get the idea that he is a sissy/ gay.
Left: Alex with fellow 1990s teen stars Stephen Dorff and Brian Austin Green
After Charles, the 14-year old had guest spots on Billy (about a Scottish comedian), The New Lassie (about a dog), and Joe's Life (about a stay-at home Dad), and starred in Pumpkin II: Blood Wings (1994): teenagers accidentally unleash an ancient demon, who kills them all except the Final Girl.
In Perfect Fit (2000), Dick (Alex) "turns to murder" to satisfy his girlfriend, a blue jean fetishist.
Former Colt model and soap stud Nick Benedict appears as Thomas, one of the jeans donors.
Control Freak in Teen Titans
Garrett in Alpha Teens on Machines
Chameleon Boy in Legion of Superheroes.
Jimmy Olsen in Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Unicorns 1 and 2 in Breadwinners
Several characters in Monster High: the Series
He returned to live action for the the anthology movie Locker 13 (2014). In Segment 3, Alex plays a mental patient considers jumping off a building, until the fast-talking Jason Marsden tells him about a Suicide Club, where members bet on when and how people will off themselves.
Roger Ebert.com tells us: "Rarely do I find a movie that is so appalling if not outright insulting to all of humanity (and particularly, in this case, womankind) that it gives me a stomach ache, but Locker 13 really put me off my Cobb Salad."
Still, Alex highlights his segment in his acting demo reel.
Alex has one writing/producer credit: Going Furthur (2016), 1966-67, Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters took a psychedelic bus called Furthur up and down the West Coast, offering Acid Tests to introduce the youth counterculture to LSD.
This one sounds interesting.
More after the break
Max Casella after dating Doogie: Christian Bale's buddy, Tony Soprano's driver, Timon, Bottom, bi. With a small d*ck bonus.
In the early 1990s, if your parents belong to a certain socioeconomic class, you were required to watch ABC's ultra-conservative programming block on Wednesday nights:
The Wonder Years, with Fred Savage as a boy winning the Girl of His Dreams in the 1960s.
Home Improvement, with Tim Allen grunting with tools.
Coach, with Craig T. Nelson as a...football coach.
And Doogie Howser, MD, with Neil Patrick Harris as a 16-year old who somehow managed to finish medical school, become a doctor, and get girls.
I wasn't of a certain age, I was not living with parents of a certain socioeconomic class, so on Wednesday nights I was watching Seinfeld. Not Doogie Howser, because of its ridiculous premise and "Girls are the meaning of life!" ideology.
But I did notice Max Casella, who played Doogie's buddy: 22-26 years, "cute as a bug's ear," as the oldsters would say, and a member of the Short Guy Brigade at 5'7".
As everyone knows, Neil Patrick Harris came out a few years after Doogie, and for some inscrutable reason agreed to play "himself' in the homophobic Harold & Kumar movies and heterosexual horndog Barney on How I Met Your Mother (2005-14). More recently, in Uncoupled (2022), he played a gay man dealing with the death of his partner and suddenly becoming single at midlife.
In Ed Wood (1994), the biopic of the director known for crossdressing, Glen or Glenda? and Plan 9 from Outer Space, Max plays Paul Marco, the gay actor who often starred in Wood's films. His sexual identity is not mentioned here.
Later Max moved into animation, voicing characters on Pepper Anne, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Kim Possible; and video games such as Jak and Daxter (a humanoid elf and his previously-human otter-weasel buddy) and Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony (he doesn't voice Gay Tony).
He appeared in 28 episodes of The Sopranos (2001-07) as Benny Fazio, who is partnered with Chris Moltisanti and sometimes works as Capo Tony's driver. He's married with children.
Inside Llewelyn Davis (2013) depicts a day in the life of the folk singer (Oscar Davis) in the early 1960s Greenwich Village scene. Max plays Club Manager Pappi Corsicato, who has sex with Llewelyn's girl.
Tulsa King (2024-): Sylvester Stallone plays a mob boss who tries to start a new cosa nostra among the Oklahoma cowboys. Max plays Manny Truisi, formerly a soldier in the Invernizzi Family, who tried to assassinate Stallone's Dwight, then fled. and started a new life working on a horse ranch. He's got a wife and kid.
More after the break.
Jay R. Ferguson: The "obviously gay" teen idol of the 1990s moves on to play a 1960s sleazoid and the dad of gay sons. With Jay and Carter cocks
In the early 1990s, I was living in West Hollywood, and completely immersed in the LGBT community. Media from the Straight World was suspect, if not homophobic than heteronormative, presenting men and women gazing at each other as the meaning of life. So we chose our television programs carefully. On Monday nights, it was Fresh Prince of Bel Air (Carleton, sigh!), Blossom (Joey Lawrence, sigh!), and Designing Women (drag queen inspiration Suzanne Sugarbaker). Certainly not Evening Shade (1990-94), with Burt Reynolds as a football coach (ugh!) in a small town (ugh!) in Arkansas (ugh!).
The photos kept coming. We discovered that he was Jay R. Ferguson, who played Taylor, son of Burt Reynolds' character Wood. Wood? Really?
Until 2025, when The Real O'Neils (2016-2018) appeared on Hulu. A conservative Irish-Catholic family has to deal with a number of problems: Dad wants a divorce; the daughter is an atheist; the oldest son (Matthew Shively) has an eating disorder; the youngest son (Noah Galvin) is gay.
Judging Amy (2003-4), which is not about a judge named Amy. A woman has problems with her mother, husband, and child. Jay plays a doctor.